Springfield Weekly Republican

THE SEA, POINTS WAY

East Gloucester Playhouse,
Under Direction and Management of Mrs. Florence
Evans and Mrs. Florence
Cunningham Gives 15
Plays in Eight Weeks

By ROLAND HOLT

Gloucester, Sept. 17—Two devoted women, Mmes. Florence Evans and Florence Cunningham, have been giving Gloucester eight weeks of better plays than one could get in the same time anywhere else in America, excepting in New York, and not even there in the wet old summertime. The repertory deserves noting in full, as a possible inspiration to other little theaters and to some of the better stock companies.

Their American plays included a new and remarkably interesting one-act piece, "Greasy Luck," by Rachael Field, about a young Nantucket harpooner, who was considered a Jonah, since no ship in which he sailed had "greasy luck," that is, brought back whale oil. The other native products were Owen Davis's Pulitzer prize play, "Icebound," Lewis Beach's admirable comedy of young folks at home, "The Goose Hangs High," and the following short plays: Phoebe Hoffman's "About Face," Rachel Crothers' "Importance of Being Married" and Ruth Giorleff's "Jazz and Minuet." The foreign plays were Ibsen's "Lady from the Sea" and "Hedda Gabler," Molnar's "Liliom." The short plays included Shaw's "Dark Lady of the Sonnets" and "Great Catherine," Essex Dane's "Where the Whirlwind Blows," Gertrude Jenning's "Waiting for the Bus" and Jules Renard's "Garrotts"—a total of 15 plays in eight weeks.

In nearly all of these weeks only Friday and Saturday night performances were given, but in the last fortnight there were four performances a week, making a total of 20 performances. As the converted sail loft used for a theater held but about 150, and only $1 a seat was charged, one can figure what these 20 performances, distributed between 15 plays, took in for the season. Sometimes, out of a maximum of $150 box office per night, as much as $50 was paid to Mr. Shaw and perhaps others for royalties. With this inspiring example, almost any locality, blessed with the needed talent, could afford a high-grade little theater.

Expenditures Big Toll

Out of their small in-take, the management had to provide 26 different settings, 12 of them exteriors. The plays called for costumes of Hungary, Norway, France, Russia, England (past and present), Denmark and these United States in three different periods. Of course at times, drapes were used. They, with clever furnishings, served for four different scenes in "Great Catherine," one of them like the one for "The Dark Lady of the Sonnets" was an admirably lit square of clear sky, framed in by drapes. In the Russian play the effect was enhanced by clever silhouettes of domes, etc., seen over the terrace.

Again in "Greasy Luck" an admirable 1840 Nantucket room was made with drapes, supplemented by inset window frames, antique oval pictures and mahogany furniture. It was designed by Jerry Ross, who also played half-a-dozen roles during the season.

The most beautiful scenes were the exteriors, with a vista of the distant fiord, in "The Lady from the Sea" (for which Jonel Jorgulesco brought some of the scenery from his repertory theater production in Boston) and the railway embankment at sunset in "Liliom," designed by Hermine Rosenbaum and Jerry Ross. The Gloucester Little theater has an admirable sky, painted on thin wood.

The lighting of the stage was in various hands, but always effective, especially Sarah Shiras's of "Liliom."

The acting was surprisingly good for a Little theater, in some instances positively brilliant, and the clear enunciation of the players and their excellent groupings, under the direction of Mrs. Evans, admirable. The chief fault was that in Ibsen they were too deliberate. For "The Lady from the Sea," a generally older cast had been imported, largely from Boston, and was not seen again. Helen Hunneman, a former pupil of Mrs. Evans, as the Lady, was intelligent and good to look upon, while Joseph Rozen was good as the ne'er do well Ballested and very picturesque as the man from the sea. Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler," the next-to-last play given, was done especially to let Marjorie Riggs, who'd been in training for it all season, make a debut in the very difficult title part, which she looked admirably.

She has a fine brunet head and an imposing figure. She showed abundant intelligence. Perhaps, however, she did not attempt to make Hedda "natural," for Ibsen has drawn her as a cruel and unnatural woman. Miss Riggs, if anything, emphasized her monstrous side. She did not quite come up to the intensity of the scene where she burns Lovberg's book. Robert Cass was a good Tesman, but overacted his fidgeting. John Wentworth acted Lovberg admirably, but scarcely looked the man whom Hedda would have wished to have "vine leaves in his hair." The cast throughout was on an exceptionally high level. Susan Blake and Charles Livingstone will be reserved for later mention. For some strange reason, Hedda, which plays entirely in the Tesman's living room, was given without closing the curtain. The house would go black for a moment, then in a half-light, two girls in sailor suits would be seen arranging the properties and furniture. Then another moment of blackness and the next act would begin. This pretty badly spoiled the illusion. This was the only play in which the prompter had a part.

Star of the Season

Charles Livingstone, aged 24, was the star of the season. In February, he takes his degree, delayed by two years' study at law, at the University of Michigan and rejoins Jesse Bonstelle's Detroit Stock company, with which he has already had brief experience. At Gloucester, in those eight weeks, he played in widely contrasted parts, ending in a blaze of glory with his beautiful sensitive Liliom. No greater contrast could be imagined than his drunken Prince Potemkin in Shaw's play, in which he was as funny as De Wolfe Hopper, and kept his audience roaring. As Shaw's Shakespeare he looked the part admirably, and played it with a fine bravura.

His acting of the cold, well-poised Judge Brack in "Hedda Gabler" was admirable even to the enriching of his voice, but not quite natural enough in appearance, a defect which did not mar his French father in "Garrotts."

His other effective portraits were his Count Tristram in "King Rene's Daughter," modern buck and ancient blade in "Jazz and Minuet," the harpooner in "Greasy Luck" in which he made one think of young Morgan Farley, the enduring father in "The Goose Hangs High."

Susan Blake, who was the harpooner's golden sweetheart in "Greasy Luck," is a wonderful, tall, well-rounded, ash blonde, with the voice of Katherine Cornell and the hair of Ann Harding. She was stunning as the foolish English captain's fighting fiancee in "Great Catherine" and just as beautiful and deeply emotional as Lovberg's guardian angel in "Hedda Gabler." Then in a spirit of wicked frolic, she made herself a terribly unappetizing hag in "Liliom," with twisted back and dirty hands. Gloucester's Little theater is "long" on good looking women. Doris Dalton Sonnekalg equalled Eva Le Gallienne as Liliom's wife, whose devotion nothing could kill, but fortunately did not wear the hideous gray flannel dress.

Mrs. Sonnekalg's brave, pure profile, in the scene where all spoke ill of her dying Liliom, cannot be forgotten, nor her beautiful lament, with a touch of Selvegt in it, over his body. Her Queen Elizabeth in the Shaw play seemed too charming and not formidable enough: qualities which made a lovely "King Rene's Daughter." Elizabeth Upthegrove has a penchant for formidable parts. She was a live Great Catherine and a vital Mrs. Muskat, the merry-go-round owner in "Liliom." She played four other roles well. Oliver Gale distinguished himself as the dull English captain in "Great Catherine." It was hard to believe that it was he playing the horrible "Sparrow" in Liliom. He was also King Rene and three other characters.

Resourceful Management

"Liliom," with which the season ended, was an admirable example of skill in getting telling effects with small means. As that play opens with a scene in an amusement park, with Liliom shouting, as the barker for a merry-go-round, the producer hung gay banners from the theater itself, an adjoining building and trees, and put Liliom on his red stand, accompanied like a Pagliaccio with a drum, at the entrance, urging the audience to come into the show, while a number of actors in costume, mingled with them. After that, the play continued with the scene on the bench near the park, on the stage of the theater. A simplification was playing the episodes at the photographer's in his studio instead of in his yard. In the second park scene, the embankment, the court room in purgatory and the door of Julie's house, their fine sky was invaluable. Using voices only for unseen characters was highly effective in the railroad and death scenes. In the latter, having the policemen from the beyond invisible avoided showing two men in white wigs, suggesting Hamilton and Jefferson, as was done in the original Theater Guild production.

In New Orleans, the splendid Mrs. Oscar Nixon was awarded a cup by "The States" (newunus) and a decoration by France for her admirable work as president of Le Petit theater du Vieux Carre. It would be a fine thing, if similar honors could be paid Mmes. Florence Cunningham and Florence Evans for providing Gloucester, practically at cost, with one of the best little theaters in America.

Broadway Slowly Waking

There are some 30 theaters open in New York, 17 house musical shows, six worth-while plays. When this appears there will be some pretty poor things on Broadway, but good risks should be "Pickwick" (a big success elsewhere), "Burlesque" an effective though at times crude, picture of the life of the two-a-day players, and George M. Cohan's "The Baby Cyclone" (a Boston hit). Promising productions that will be added after this is written, but visible when it appears, are Maurine Watkins' dramatization of "Revelry," about an imaginary president of the United States, Connelly and Mankiewicz's "Wild Man of Borneo," and "Yellow Sands," by Eden Phillpotts and his daughter.

The old familiar pieces include "Saturday's Children," "The Spider," "Broadway," a revival, announced to end 24, of the admirable "In Abraham's Bosom," and, not for the deaf, "The Road to Rome" and "The Second Man."

The best with music are "The Grand Street Follies" (ribald but really witty), "Peggy-Ann," "The Desert Song," "The Circus Princess," and (for costumes and scenery only) "Rio Rita." "The Manhatters" seems a good risk.